offered to him. The President entertained three times a week, but never invited ladies, because there were none in his own house. His health was not very good. "I believe the duties of his office weary him much," Adams writes; "he is obliged, in this weather, to sit in Congress from eleven in the morning until four in the afternoon, the warmest and most disagreeable part of the day. It was expected that Congress would adjourn during the dog-days, at least, but they have so much business that a recess, however short, would leave them behindhand." A portion of the young statesman's gossip about men and women then most conspicuous in the metropolis, we transcribe from his letters, which are more particular and more entertaining than any other notices of life in New York during that summer.

"At tea, this afternoon, at Mr. Ramsay's," he writes on the twentieth of July, "I met Mr. Gardoqui, and his secretary, Mr. Rawdon, who is soon, if common report says truly, to marry Miss M. His complexion and his looks show sufficiently from what country he is. How happens it that revenge stares through the eyes of every Spaniard? Mr. Gardoqui was very polite, and enquired much after my father, as did also Mr. Van Berkel, the Dutch minister." Mr. Ramsay was the amiable and accomplished histo

rian, and a representative from South Carolina.

On the twenty-third he dined with General Knox, the secretary of war, who lived about four miles out of the city. The Virginia and Massachusetts delegations, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Lady Duer, daughter of Lord Stirling, Miss Sears, Mr. Church, Colonel Wadsworth, and Mr. Osgood, formed the company. "Lady Duer is not young, or handsome," he says; but she would not have been thought old, by a man over eighteen, and she had been, if she was not then, one of the sweetest looking women in the city. "Miss Sears," he continues, "has been ill, and looks pale; but she is very pretty,

and has the reputation of being witty and sharp: I am sure she does not look méchante." After a passage of more than twelve weeks, from Amsterdam, the daughter of Mr. Van Berkel arrived in Philadelphia, and the minister set out to meet her. Young Adams had seen her in Holland, and does not appear to have formed a very high estimate of her beauty. "The young ladies here," he remarks, "are very impatient to see her, and I dare say that when she comes reflections will not be spared on either side. The beauties of New York will triumph, but, I hope, with moderation."

Colonel William S. Smith, a native of New York, who had served with considerable credit during the war, and was afterward appointed Secretary of Legation at the Court of London, was at this time engaged to Miss Adams. On the last day of July her brother went with a Mr. Jarvis to visit the family, at Jamaica, Long Island.

"The colonel's mother," he writes, "appeared to miss him very much. All the family are in mourning for the old gentleman, who died about nine months ago. There is one son here now, and, if I mistake not, six daughters. Sally strikes most at first sight: she is tall, has a very fine shape, and a vast deal of vivacity in her eyes, which are a light blue. She has the ease and elegance of the French ladies, without their loquacity. Her conversation, I am told, is as pleasing as her figure." This young lady was married in a few years to Charles Adams, the writer's brother. He also mentions a "celebrated beauty by the name of Miss Ogden," who then lived on the Island. He thought she resembled the handsome Mrs. Bingham, of Philadelphia, whom he had encountered abroad.

On Sunday, the seventh of August, he writes, "I attended church this morning at St. Paul's: for we have a St. Paul's here as well as you in London, though it is something like Alexander the

Great and Alexander the coppersmith. It is, however, the largest and most frequented church in New York. After church I left a card with Miss Van Berkel; she arrived here from Philadelphia two days ago; she complains of not understanding the language, as bitterly as you did when you first arrived in France."

The next morning he went out with some company to a seat called Content, two or three miles from town, to call on Lady Wheate. "She is one of the most celebrated belles of the city. About two years ago she married Sir Jacob Wheate, a British officer, between sixty and seventy years old; she was not sixteen; Sir Jacob, before he had been married a week, went to the West Indies, and there died. He left her a handsome fortune, and it is said she is soon to wed Sir Francis Cochrane, son of Lord Dundonald, a Scotch nobleman. Miss Sally Smith was with Lady Wheate, and has spent nearly a week with her. I am vastly pleased with this lady; the contrast between her manners and those of Lady Wheate is greatly in her favor, and very striking."

He made several excursions to places in the vicinity. One was with Mr. Söderstrom, the Swedish consul, to Mr. Bayard, whose seat was nearly a mile from the city. He had two daughters, who ranked among the toasts, and one of them he thought very pretty. Mr. Bayard had been a Tory, but the fact was now forgotten, or at least not remembered against his charming family. On another occasion he visited Monsieur de Marbois,* the French chargé d'af

Barbe Marbois, afterward the Marquis de Marbois, was born at Metz, in 1745. He came to America in 1779, as secretary of legation under the Chevalier de la Luzerne, and when that minister returned to France, in the spring of 1784, he became chargé d'affaires, in which capacity he continued in this country until promoted to the place of Intendent of Hispaniola, in 1785-a - a period of six years. He was a great favorite in society while he resided in Philadelphia, and among the papers of Mr. Theodore Sedgwick's family I find some gossip respecting his marriage with Miss Moore, of that city, in June, 1784. "The nuptials of M. de Marbois and Miss Moore," says the writer, were celebrated not long since; the ceremony was performed in the morning in the minister's chapel, by his abbé, and in the evening at Mr. Moore's, by Parson White. It gave occasion for the circulation of a variety of reports, such as, that the lady had

faires, who had a summer house on Long Island. He describes Madame de Marbois as a 66 spruce, pretty little woman," who spoke French very well, and had none of the rigid principles of the Quakers, among whom she was born. Among the eminent persons with whom he dined, at one place or another, were Dr. Witherspoon, Dr. Johnson, Baron Steuben, and Thomas Paine, who at this period was sometimes admitted to the tables of respectable men.

III.

THE winter of 1787-88 is represented as having been more gay than any since New York was first agitated with the discontents leading to the revolution. The last session of the Continental Congress was organized, on the second day of January, by the election of Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia, as President; and as the Constitutional Convention, in Philadelphia, had adjourned in the previous September, the wisdom of the nation was largely assembled here, either in official capacities, or to operate more effectively on public opinion while the fate of the Constitution was still doubtful, or on account of those social attractions which every country finds in its capital.

M. de Marbois had been superseded as chargé d'affaires by M.

renounced her religion and embraced the Catholic-being baptized, and receiving the sacrament; though, in fact, I believe nothing was required of either party but toleration of each other.” Washington wrote to him on this occasion: "It was with very great pleasure I received from your own pen an account of the agreeable and happy connection you were about to form with Miss Moore. Though you have given many proofs of your predilection and attachment to this country, yet this last may be considered not only as a great and tender one, but as the most pleasing and lasting one. The accomplishments of the lady, and her connections, cannot fail to make it so. On this joyous event, accept, I pray you, the congratulations of Mrs. Washington and myself, who cannot fail to participate in whatever contributes to the felicity of yourself or your amiable consort, with whom we both have the happiness of an acquaintance, and to whom and the family we beg leave to present our compliments. With very great esteem and regard, and an earnest desire to approve myself worthy of your friendship, I have the honor to be," &c., &c. M. de Marbois held many important offices under Napoleon, and he is known as an author, in this country, by his History of Louisiana and a work on the Treason of Benedict Arnold. His daughter, who was born in New York, was married to the Duke de Plaisance, son of Le Brun, one of Napoleon's colleagues in the consulate.

ry

Louis William Otto, who had resided here several years, and who continued in his present office until the arrival of the Marquis de Moustier,* at the end of the year 1787, when he became secretary of legation. For the previous ministers from France the American people had justly entertained a most affectionate respect. When Gerard was about to leave us Washington wrote to him, "You carwith you the affections of a whole people, and leave behind you a reputation which will have the peculiar fortune to be every where admired by good men." When Luzerne retired, he wrote to him, "When I say you have inspired me with sentiments of sincere respect and attachment, I do not speak the language of my own heart only it is the universal voice." In the same manner he expressed his regard for Marbois. And all these Frenchmen cherished for Washington a profound admiration. The Count de Moustier was less fortunate, in temper and abilities, and seemed more anxious to win the admiration of the people than the confidence of the government. One of his earliest communications to Washington, was a complaint respecting some fancied neglect, in certain points of etiquette. After making a tour through the country, however, he seemed better pleased, and during his residence in New York he contributed much to the gayety and happiness of its society.

Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey, in a letter of the third of March, 1787, alludes to the fashionable life here, and in a characteristic sentence reproves its extravagance and dissipation. "My principal secretary of state, who is one of my daughters," he "is gone to New York to shake her heels at the balls and

says,

* Eléonor-François Elie, Marquis de Moustier, Lieutenant General, &c., &c., was now thirtyseven years of age. He possessed a liberal fortune, and, though penurious, was fond of display: none of the foreign ministers entertained more frequently or more ostentatiously. Brissot de Warville says he heard him boast that he told Griffin, the President of Congress, in his own house, that he was but a tavern-keeper ; "and the Americans had the complaisance not to demand his recall!" M. de Moustier remained faithful to the Bourbons, and, during the ascendency of Napoleon, found refuge in England. He died in the beginning of 1817.